Solar Roof
- Proposed "Solar Tax" Misses the MarkAustralian solar homeowners may soon be facing charges to export their clean solar energy into the power grid, under rule changes being proposed by the Australian Energy Market Commission.
- Backyard pools and energy efficiency, what you need to knowA backyard pool is a major drawcard in summer, your house will certainly be popular amongst your friends and neighbours as things heat up, but what will probably not be popular with you is paying for pool operation and maintenance costs, especially energy costs.
- A quick note on solar systems and bushfire smoke
Due to the horrendous bushfires still burning in Australia at the moment you might notice a drop in your solar production on the order of 20-30%, this is due to the bushfire smoke in the air but it also might be due to the ash being deposited on your panels. The way to tell if you have significant ash on your panels is to check your production on a relatively clear day, if production is still down then you probably have ash on your panels which will need
- Solar accounting 101: How to estimate the annual credit/deficit for your power bill, for a given solar systemA key reason that someone would get rooftop solar is because they would dearly love to never pay another power bill again. The problem is it is not immediately obvious which PV system will eliminate your bill as it depends on a number of factors. If you are unfamiliar with solar it is difficult to know what questions to ask a solar retailer and how to distinguish valid claims from invalid claims. So how do know what your annual power bill is likely to be for a given solar system? Here is a broad overview of how to work that out:
- Sunpower retakes the crown it never lost with new 400W world’s most efficient panelSunpower’s leading residential format panel is now 400W with its new Maxeon G3 range. The main technological advance is in the production which it says is as much as 50% cheaper than its old method of getting cells out the door with world leading efficiency.
- No Limits to gas lobby ENA’s efforts to ban solar.
Beware lobby group ENA ban on rooftop solar
Lobby group Energy Networks Australia wants to ban you from having a solar system that can export 10kW  
- Why do we need 3 inspectors for solar systems?Why do we need 3 inspectors for solar systems? Solar installations are a relatively straightforward specialisation of the electrical trade. They're no different in skill and aptitude to installing split system air-conditioners or wiring a house.
- Nine myths about new energy
Nine myths about new energy
I will begin this list with my first introduction to a myth about renewable energy, put forward by the 'pro-nuclear, pro-coal, anti-renewable' advocates circa 2005:
1) ‘We could never integrate more than 5% intermittent renewables (they meant wind and solar) into an electricity grid.’
- The Hidden subsidy for the fossil fuel industry in the Building Code that costs homeowners thousands
Did you know the building code forces people to connect a new house to the gas network?
- The complete solar roof is making a big return
BIPV was a buzzword that kept on buzzing while the solar industry was in its early days and solar was something that most of us had only ever seen on TV or at a technology park.
